Many messy discrepancies remain between state and federal law regarding cannabis use. For the estimated 5 millions immigrants living in California who are not U.S. citizens, the stakes are high — especially when it comes cannabis.

Our immigration reporter Ninna Gaensler-Debs tells us more about what Proposition 64 will mean for immigrants here in the Bay Area.

California voters legalized the recreational use and sale of marijuana on a statewide basis. The law is set to go into effect on January 1. The roll out will depend on decisions made at the local level. The prospects for legal cannabis could look very different in Berkeley, San Francisco, and San Jose. What are the major differences? How do you want marijuana to be sold and marketed where you live? Join the conversation on the next Your Call, with Renee Kemp, and you.

Dani is twenty-two years old. She was born in Mexico and moved to Richmond when she was three. About a year ago, she started working at a cannabis dispensary. It’s more than just a job. She identifies as a “first generation bud tender” - one of the first people to openly sell cannabis now that it’s becoming legal in California. She's proud of her role, but it hasn’t been easy. Cannabis is still not federally legal so as an immigrant, she's working in a legal grey area. Plus, her family wasn’t too happy with her work.

Kelly Quirke, community engagement coordinator for Harborside Health Center, a medical marijuana dispensary in Oakland, finds it ironic that so many people he deals with in their 60s and 70s are adamant about not getting high on cannabis.

In November, California voters will decide whether or not to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. It’s Prop 64 on your ballot. Already, the medicinal use of marijuana has been legal since voters passed a proposition back in 1996.

"Ranger on marijuana grows eradication duty" by Park Ranger licensed under CC BY-NC-SA, cropped from the original

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Advocates of legalizing marijuana in California received some encouraging news this week: On Monday a broad coalition of supporters, including Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, announced that they’re backing a 2016 ballot measure.

A note to readers and listeners: An earlier version of this transcript incorrectly identified the quotation above from Professor Rob MacCoun as being stated by Beau Kilmer, Senior Policy Analyst at the RAND Institute's Drug Policy Research Center. The text has been edited to correct this error, but the audio has not been updated.

2013 marks one hundred years since California outlawed marijuana – and with the state supreme court poised to decide the fate of medical marijuana next month, the relationship between California and the drug could change yet again.

New Opportunities and Conflicts for Marijuana Legalization in California

City Visions explores the policy conflicts facing the marijuana legalization movement in California. Do the recent ballot victories in Colorado and Washington provide new momentum for cannabis legalization in the Golden State? Or will enforcement of federal law by the Department of Justice prevent California from forging its own vision for the use and sale of marijuana? Host Victoria Thorp discusses these questions and more with guests Dr. Robert MacCoun, Professor of Public Policy and Law, UC Berkeley, Beau Kilmer, Senior Policy Analyst at the RAND Institute's Drug Policy Research Center, and Dale Gieringer, Director of Cal NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws).

Last month, Governor Jerry Brown, speaking on CNN, said: “It’s time for the Justice Department to recognize the sovereignty of the states. We already have a fair amount of marijuana use in the guise of medical marijuana, so we are capable of self-government. We don’t need some federal gendarme to come tell us what to do.”

In a rational (and non-political) examination of harmful activities, he noted that around ten people die each year in the United Kingdom while riding horses. And there are more than a hundred traffic accidents involving horses annually, some also resulting in death.

(CourthouseNews.com) // Harborside Health Center’s landlord in San Jose is asking a federal judge to stop HHC from growing or storing marijuana on the property, saying that they thought it was legal to operate such a dispensary when they originally leased the space. The move is an attempt to prevent the U.S. Dept. of Justice from seizing the property for harboring illegal activities.

(Newsday) // The federal tax court has ruled against San Francisco’s now-closed Vapor Room. It means the business owes thousands of dollars in back taxes – and has wide implications for all dispensaries.

(LA Times) // The Los Angeles City Council passed a total ban on cannabis dispensaries July 24. It doesn’t directly impact dispensaries in other parts of the state, other than to add to the air of uncertainty surrounding the industry.

Marijuana is legal for medical use under California law, but sale and possession are still federal crimes. Raids on growers and dispensaries – and a general climate of uncertainty – are increasingly creating problems for the industry.

Last week, the company that processes most dispesary credit card transactions nationally announced that starting in July, it would no longer do so. This means businesses will now have to conduct most of their business in cash.

(Medical Marijuana Business Daily) // Patients will need greenbacks to purchase their green bud at cannabis dispensaries throughout the US starting next month – unless they have a Discover card. Electronic Merchant Systems (EMS), the main national credit card clearinghouse working with dispensaries, notified them by email that the company will stop processing Visa and Mastercard transactions as of July 1…

The practice of fracking on oil wells near Taft, California has been approved by the state Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources. Fracking – the practice of injecting steam underground at high pressure to break up porous soil to release oil – had been banned within 150 feet of any wells known to be seeping oil...